Saturday, May 30, 2009

My sister Melissa, her husband Luke, and nieces Maryanne and Naomi welcomed a boy, Lucas, to the world at about 2:00 am today. He's adorable, of course! They chose to have the gender of the baby be a surprise, so we're all thrilled that it was a boy.

My doctor gave me permission to go to see the little guy today, so it was fun to see the baby AND get out of the house! Another lady from Melissa and Luke's church had her baby yesterday, so Tony and I got a chance to hold two 7 lb babies at the same time ... what a reality check! Mommy's going to need 4 arms. :)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

There haven't been any significant developments in the pregnancy, but I know a lot of you like to stay up-to-date, so I'll share a small report on my appointments this week. The first appointment was a regular ObGyn appointment, and the other was for a non-stress test (where they monitor the babies' heartbeats and my contractions for about half an hour). Here's what I learned:

My belly is now as big as a full-term single baby pregnancy

The good news: Both babies are staying head down (they need to stay that way to avoid a c-section). The bad news: I have four feet pointed directly at my ribs, which they are now big enough to kick, regularly!

It's very possible to monitor "both" heartbeats for half an hour before realizing that they were actually monitoring the same heartbeat on two different monitors. :)

My doctor will consider taking me off bed rest in two weeks, and off the contraction medication in four weeks. Yay!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I love the memory book that my mom kept for me during the first year of my life, so I wanted to do the same thing for our kids. I found the cutest twins memory book online! It's called "Twice Upon A Time", and you buy one for each twin. It's written like a fairy tale, and the first part of the book concentrates on the pregnancy, and the twins as a set. The second part concentrates on one twin specifically, so you can talk about their individuality as well. I can't wait to start filling it out!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Here's the long anticipated doctor update! I know a lot of you thought my appointments were on Wednesdays, but they gave me 10 days instead of 7 between appointments this time ... how nice, right? :) The first news is definitely answered prayer -- "A" already weighs 3 lbs 10 oz, and "B" weighs 4 lbs even! Like I said in a post not too long ago, 4 lbs is a major developmental milestone, so I'm very thankful to have reached it! They're even a little ahead of schedule with this weight ... my children are so advanced. :) My next prayer is to get them to 5.5 lbs each, because that's when they may not be considered premature, and they might even be able to come home right away after they're born.The second piece of good news is that my body is actually holding steady, as well. I'm not sure the doctor sees this very often, because he didn't even know when to ask me to come in next. He finally decided that he doesn't need to see me for three more weeks! I will miss getting to see the twincesses in ultrasounds, but I'm not complaining about missing all the other stuff that they do at those appointments. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean a break in bed rest, but I think I can survive.My family, friends, and blog readers must have a direct line to God, because the same doctor that has been telling me that we have between 1 - 3 weeks left is now saying he can't make an accurate prediction. Why does that leave me fearful that I'm going to have to deliver two, ten pound babies at full term, and have to spend 7 more weeks on bed rest? :)

Friday, May 15, 2009

I found the cutest song on another blog the other day, and I wanted to pass it along. It's called "We are One" by Renee and Jeremy. I think it's written as a kind of "global worldview" song, as you'll see in the video, but I like it for the twins because one of the lines says "you are you ... and there's never gonna be anyone like you". Maybe Tony and I will sing it to the baby girls!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkOTwVX1cb4

And if you like that one, there's a more whimsical song by the same group called "It's a Big World" that's pretty cute.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Npu_ly3ZMI'll write a doctor's appointment update after my appointment this afternoon!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

I had another doctor's appointment today. No ultrasound pictures, unfortunately, but I did get a good report on my health ... at least, as good as it gets these days! My perinatologist said that his gut feeling is that they'll have to admit me to the hospital in about two weeks, and they'll be able to delay labor for about another two after that. That gets the babies up to 33 - 34 weeks, which might be slightly more than he was estimating last week. Of course, that's only his guess, so we'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

One of our cats, Copper, has been missing for 5 days now. She had learned how to use the dog door, so we couldn't monitor where she was at all times any more ... and last week, she just didn't come back. We've posted posters in the neighborhood, but Tony said that there have been foxes around lately, so we're not incredibly optimistic about getting her back.

So, in my effort to grieve (although not enough to replace her), here are a few photos of Copper's life in our family. Here she is when we brought her home -- so tiny! She had the loudest kitty meow I've ever heard.

Here she is trying to figure out what kind of shampoo she wanted to use that day. :)

And cuddling with our other cat, Grey. They loved each other, and Grey hasn't stopped meowing at night and wanting extra love since Copper left. It breaks my heart.

My parents' cat ran away in 2005, and it came back after 6 months, so I guess all hope isn't lost. Until then, though, we'll remember our independent, wild little kitty fondly.